, earnestly as I desire it, I could not but feel that I should
go there, not to visit, but to reside. And so even in this, in many
respects, delightful project, is mingled the bitter apprehension of
dependence--something so humiliating, that, kindly and delicately as the
offer is made, I could not bring myself to embrace it. I have a great
deal to say to you, and long to see you."...

These extracts will enable the reader to form a tolerably accurate idea
of the general state of affairs at Gray Forest. Some particulars must,
however, be added.

Marston continued to be the same gloomy and joyless being as heretofore.
Sometimes moody and apathetic, sometimes wayward and even savage, but
never for a moment at ease, never social--an isolated, disdainful,
ruined man.

One day as Rhoda sate and read under the shade of some closely-interwoven
evergreens, in a lonely and sheltered part of the neglected
pleasure-grounds, with her honest maid Willett in attendance, she was
surprised by the sudden appearance of her father, who stood unexpectedly
before her. Though his attitude for some time was fixed, his countenance
was troubled with anxiety and pain, and his sunken eyes rested upon her
with a fiery and fretted gaze. He seemed lost in thought for a while, and
then, touching Willett sharply on the shoulder, said abruptly:

"Go; I shall call you when you are wanted. Walk down that alley." And,
as he spoke, he indicated with his walking-cane the course he desired
her to take.

When the maid was sufficiently distant to be quite out of hearing,
Marston sate down beside Rhoda upon the bench, and took her hand in
silence. His grasp was cold, and alternately relaxed and contracted
with an agitated uncertainty, while his eyes were fixed upon the
ground, and he seemed meditating how to open the conversation. At last,
as if suddenly awaking from a fearful reverie, he said--"You correspond
with Charles?"

"Yes, sir," she replied, with the respectful formality prescribed by the
usages of the time, "we correspond regularly."

"Aye, aye; and, pray, when did you last hear from him?" he continued.

"About a month since, sir," she replied.

"Ha--and--and--was there nothing strange--nothing--nothing mysterious and
menacing in his letter? Come, come, you know what I speak of." He stopped
abruptly, and stared in her face with an agitated gaze.

"No, indeed, sir; there was not anything of the kind," she replied.

"I have been greatly shoc